A Professor's Work is Never Done
by Crazy-Obsessed-Writer52
Summary: A series of conversations between Neville, Scorpius and Rose discussing the relationship between the two students.


**A/N: Hello, readers.! It's been a while since I've posted something on this website. I've been at my cottage where I can only go on the internet for about an hour or so at a time. I've got a few things I've got to add including several Dramiones, and a couple Marauder era oneshots. I'll get them posted before the end of August, I hope. Anyways, enjoy this little oneshot and don't forget to review on your way out!**

**Rose**

**Year One:**

"Hi, Neville!"

"Hello, Rose, but remember, I'm Professor Longbottom in school."

Rose grinned. "Oh, right, silly me!"

Neville looked worriedly at the eleven-year-old. "Rose? Are you okay?"

"I'm just spectacular, Nev—Professor Longbottom." Rose grinned from ear to ear.

"And why might that be?"

"Because I just put Malfoy in the hospital wing. Don't worry, McGonagall gave me a detention already. For the next two weeks, actually."

Neville sighed. He should have known. "Rose, you've been at school for exactly a week."

"I know," Rose beamed.

"And you've already sent somebody to the hospital?"

"It's not just anybody, Professor, it's Malfoy. He's annoying. I hate him and he hates me."

Neville decided to humour her. "And why's that?"

"Because he's an arrogant twerp. He thinks that he's the best thing since sliced bread. He's most definitely not, though. He made fun of my family. What was I supposed to do? He didn't think I'd send him to the hospital wing for sure." Rose giggled.

Neville sighed. They were almost worse than Harry and Draco. He was in for a long seven years.

**Year Two:**

"Rose," Neville said, his face unnaturally stern. "You know that I had to give you a detention. I couldn't just let you get away with this because I know you outside of school like I know you were thinking I would."

Rose just scowled. "He started it. Why isn't he in here?"

"He's got detention tomorrow, Rose. I didn't want you two to be in the same room during this detention."

"But it's all his fault. He said that girls can't play Quidditch and that the Holyhead Harpies are just there to make all the feminists out there happy. He said that they can't play and that girls don't know how to play roughly."

"So you pulled out a baby mandrake and shoved it in his face?"

"Exactly. That'll show him that girls can so play rough."

"But Rose, you knocked out half the class. Only a few of them had earmuffs on before you shoved it in his face."

"Okay, but babies don't actually hurt you."

"But what if it was an adult mandrake? You could have killed the class, Rose."

"I _knew_ it was a baby, Professor." Rose was speaking slowly, almost as if she thought Neville was a very slow person.

"I know, Rose," Neville exhaled loudly. He knew that he wasn't going to win _this _argument.

**Year Three:**

Neville was walking down the hallway one evening during dinnertime when he heard the noises coming from the closet. Heaving a sigh, he opened the door. Instead of the couple snogging or worse he was expecting, he found a redhead girl crying softly, her face in her knees.

"Rose?" Neville asked tentatively. "What's the matter?" He had never been good with crying girls, but as a teacher of hormonal teenage girls, he was getting used to it quickly.

"Professor Longbottom," she sniffled, raising he head long enough to see who had interrupted her. "Nothing."

"Rose, obviously something's wrong if you're crying. People don't just cry for no reason."

"I don't want to talk about it," Rose broke down into a fresh batch of tears.

"All right. It's okay. Everything'll be okay," Neville patted her awkwardly on the back while she put her face into her knees.

"I hate him," she said through her tears. "I hate that stupid Scorpius Malfoy. Why does he even have to exist?"

"Rose, do you really want me to explain where people come from?"

Rose let out watery smile. "No thanks, Professor."

"So, why do you hate him so much today?"

"He insulted my family, again."

"And this is new?"

"He called my Grandfather a 'muggle-loving blood traitor.' He said that if he loved them so much that he should just go snap his wand and go live with them. He said that to me because he knew that my Grandfather is in St. Mungo's. They don't know if he'll make it." Rose dissolved again, her sobs shaking her whole body. "I don't know what I'll do without Grandad Weasley. He and I are _really_ close."

"Oh, Rose, it'll be okay. I know that you'll have a hard time with this. I'll talk to Scorpius."

"No, Professor, don't. I don't want him to know that it got me so upset."

Neville understood completely. Scorpius would most definitely use that to his advantage. The pair hated each other, that much was blatantly obvious.

"Okay, but the next time he says something to upset you like this come to me, all right?"

Rose nodded. "All right. Thank you, Professor. I think I'll go to my common room now. Before everybody's done dinner. Hopefully I can make it up to my dorm."

"Okay, Rose. I'll see you tomorrow in Herbology, all right?"

Rose nodded again and wiped her eyes. "Definitely." She left the closet, leaving Neville wondering just how long this rivalry would last.

**Year Four: **

Neville was walking the grounds of Hogwarts one Saturday morning, expecting it to be peaceful. He should have known that Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy would ruin that hope for him.

"I'll kill you, Malfoy," Rose said, rolling on the ground, Scorpius Malfoy pinned under her.

"Not happening, Weasley," Scorpius said, pushing her off of him and standing up. Rose stood up and began punching him, her red hair flying out behind her.

"Fight back you coward," she screeched. Instead of doing what she said, Scorpius just smirked as he held out his hands to block her punches.

"It's beneath me to fight a girl," he said.

Neville hurried over and cast a shield charm between the pair. "Scorpius, wait in my office. Now."

Scorpius obeyed, slouching off towards the greenhouses, still smirking.

"Rose!" Neville cried once Scorpius was out of earshot. "What is happening?"

"I hate him. I hope he dies a very painful death _very_ soon," Rose screamed, stamping her feet angrily like a child who didn't get what she wanted.

"And what happened between you two this time?"

"He said some things I'd rather not repeat about Allie." Allie was Rose's best friend.

"Rose, I know you're fiercely loyal to your friends, you get that from both your dad and your uncle Harry, but you can't just go beating people up for every rude thing they say. Why can't you just ignore him?"

"Because then it makes me look like I don't care and he'll keep going to try to annoy me further."

"Rose, Rose..." Neville trailed off, knowing that, once again, his advice would be wasted on Rose. "Can you please just _try_ to not fight with Scorpius for at least a week? I haven't had a week off from this since before you two came."

"I can't, Professor. I'm sorry that you don't appreciate our bickering, but we have to."

"Okay, Rose," Neville smiled at the honesty that Rose possessed. "You know I'm going to have to give you both yet _another _detention?"

Rose nodded. "Of course, Professor."

Neville sighed. Those two were going to be the death of him.

**Year Five:**

"Rose, do you know why you're here?"

Rose sighed as she put on her dragon skin gloves and began sorting flobberworms. "Yes, Professor Longbottom,"

"And what is that reason?"

"I told Malfoy that if he's planning on becoming the next Voldemort he's going to have to work on his charms."

"Yes. You of all people should know that jokes about You-Know-Who are not tolerated here. You should be thanking your lucky stars that you didn't have to live with You-Know-Who around, causing terror everywhere he went. Our world is still trying to get over that. I know it doesn't look like it, but people are still suffering from his time here. My parents for instance. Did you know that his followers tortured them into insanity? And what about your Uncle George? He lost his twin. Haven't you noticed that there are still certain things that make him get upset? Or Teddy Lupin. He grew up without his parents. Making jokes about that time is rude and untactful. Not to mention that the ministry is slightly paranoid about the next dark wizard. Making accusations, even joking ones, are very dangerous.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Rose. Your family especially suffered greatly in the war and you disrespect that by making jokes about it. And you accused another student of dark activity which isn't just a joke, it's insulting and dangerous. Yes, the Malfoy family was on You-Know-Who's side during the war, but Narcissa, Scorpius' grandmother, helped Harry in the end. I know you don't like Scorpius, but I didn't expect you to disrespect everybody who participated in that war, including me."

"I'm sorry, Professor," Rose said, her eyes cast downward. "I didn't realize how insulting that comment is to everybody, not just Malfoy, who I was aiming to insult."

"Just don't say it again."

"I promise," said Rose.

"Good. Now get sorting your flobberworms. You're not leaving until that entire bucket is sorted into alive and dead."

Rose looked at the gigantic bucket, sighed, and got to work.

**Year Six:**

"'Rose, for the first time in your Hogwarts career I have given you a detention for hexing somebody who isn't Scorpius Malfoy," Neville said, smiling as Rose scowled.

"She deserved it."

"And what did Leanne Anderson do to you that caused you to curse her so that her face would be covered in pimples for a month?" The girl had come into the hospital wing bawling her eyes out as she pointed to painful looking red pimples that covered her entire face.

"She was trying to make me jealous of her."

"Of what?"

"Because she's going out with Malfoy. She seems to be under the deluded impression that I like her boyfriend and made sure to inform me that they were madly in love and would never break up."

"And you hexed her? Why do you care?"

"I don't know!" Rose threw up her hands. "I don't know why it got to me! I can't figure out why I care so much!"

"Maybe you have feelings for him after all?"

"No, Professor, don't be stupid. I hate him!" Neville raised his eyebrows. "I do! Why don't you believe me?"

"Who said I didn't believe you?"

"Your eyebrows implied it!"

My eyebrows?" Neville smiled.

Rose scowled and turned back to the lines she was writing.

For the first time in six years, Neville suddenly had hope that Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy could get along.

**Year Seven:**

Neville was walking into the entrance hall after yet another delicious breakfast in the Great Hall when he saw the scene that he constantly dreaded. It was Rose Weasley, her red curls cascading down her back and Scorpius Malfoy, his platinum blonde hair at about ear length. They were face to face, both in stances where they could reach their wands easily. Rose was yelling at him,

"You're such a prick, Malfoy. Get out of my sight."

"This coming from you?" Scorpius screamed back. "You're the one who thinks that she's so much better than everybody because her mother, father and uncle are the golden trio. You think that you can do whatever you want whenever you want." At this point they were almost nose to nose.

Rose opened her mouth to retort and suddenly, Neville wasn't sure who had started it, they were kissing. Rose's hands dropped from where they had been placed angrily on her hips and moved up to Scorpius' neck, essentially pulling him closer.

Neville watched for a moment, a bemused expression on his face. Finally, he had to do his duty as a teacher and interrupt them.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat as he came nearer. "Excuse me," Rose and Scorpius broke apart, their faces turning red. "Glad to see that you worked out your problems," Neville smiled. Both teenagers turned, if possible, even redder. "Scorpius, meet me in my office. Rose, walk with me."

Scorpius turned and left, slouching as though he was in trouble. Of course, he probably thought he was.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Rose cried. "It won't happen again, I swear."

"I'm not going to get you into trouble, Rose. I just wanted to congratulate you on working out your differences with Scorpius. Do you think I'll have to give you two a detention for hexing each other anymore?"

"I don't know, Professor," Rose smiled. "I'm thinking not, unless he _really_ annoys me."

Neville laughed. "Okay, Rose, go to class now. But thank you for finally allowing me to have my sanity back."

Rose giggled. "Okay, see you around, Professor."

Rose walked off into the distance and Neville grinned. _Finally_, he thought. _Finally_.

**Scorpius**

**Year One: **

"Scorpius, do you know why you're here?" Neville Longbottom asked the angry first year.

Scorpius Malfoy frowned, his grey eyes glinting with anger. "Yes," he said angrily. "It's because that stupid Rose Weasley told me that the Malfoy name meant nothing."

"Not exactly, Scorpius, Rose may have done that, but it was _your_ actions that landed you here right now."

"I only jelly-legs-jinxed her. She'll live."

"That's not the point. Here at Hogwarts you get detentions for using magic in a bad way."

"Well she asked for it."

"She said, 'Oh Scorpius, please jelly-legs jinx me' ?"

"Ha-ha," Scorpius said sarcastically. "Why isn't she in here?"

"She's got one tomorrow, don't you worry. Why, did you want her here with you?"

"Ew! Definitely not. I hate her. Just the sight of her makes me want to puke."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think, Scorpius?"

"Nope," Scorpius said simply. "She's a horrible awful person. She thinks that just because her dad is Ron Weasley and her mum is Hermione Granger that she can get away with whatever she wants."

"I don't think that's true," said Neville.

"I think so."

"All right..."

**Year Two:**

Neville entered greenhouse one at lunchtime one day, expecting it to be empty as t was lunchtime. Instead of the emptiness he was expecting, Neville found Scorpius Malfoy sitting in the corner, crying into his knees.

"Scorpius?" Neville asked, shocked.

"Oh, hello, Professor," Scorpius sniffled. "I'm sorry. I'll just leave."

"No, Scorpius. Stay for a moment. What's the matter?"

"Nothing, I just hate my life."

"And why's that?"

"I'm tired of hearing about how I'm good for nothing because my dad made a stupid mistake when he was a teenager. I'm constantly being compared to him by everybody. All the Slytherins hate me because I'm in Ravenclaw, and almost everybody else hates me because I'm _not_ in Slytherin."

"That's not true, Scorpius. You've got lots of friends. You've got Albus, Martin and Gordon as your best friends, plus lots more who you are acquaintances with."

"But lots of other people hate me."

"Like who?"

"Rose Weasley."

"Ah, what did she say?"

"She said that I was destined to turn out no better than my father was. I'm tired of everybody comparing me to my father!"

"I knew your father when he was in school, Scorpius. You are most definitely not at all like he was. Don't worry about what Rose says. You both say hurtful things to each other. You usually don't mean it."

"Why did my father have to make such stupid choices? Was he not thinking of me at all?"

Neville chuckled. "I doubt he even thought about having children, let alone what his children would be subjected to because of his choices."

"Still, he should have decided better."

"Your father made some bad choices, Scorpius, we all do. But you know that he regrets them and that he loves you, right?"

"How do you know?"

"Because he came to talk to me at the beginning of your first year. He came here and apologized for his decisions in the war and some of the things he said to me. He asked for me to make sure his son was okay here."

Scorpius paused for a minute. "Okay, I don't hate him. Just Weasley."

Neville smiled. "I wouldn't expect it any other way."

**Year Three:**

"Scorpius, Scorpius, why do you force me to give you all these detentions?"

"I don't force you, Professor. You just _choose _to give me detentions." Scorpius smirked a smirk identical to his father's.

"Don't be smart with me," But the corner of Neville's mouth twitched as though he was trying to hold back a smile. "You _do _know why you're here, don't you?"

"Yes, Professor," Scorpius sighed. "It's because Rose Weasley is the most annoying girl ever to walk this earth."

"As usual, Scorpius, Rose is _not_ the reason you're here. She may be the reason for your actions, but she didn't send you here."

"As good as," Scorpius muttered under his breath.

"No, Scorpius, it was the fact that you spiked her pumpkin juice so that her voice would be extremely deep for a week that landed you here."

"She deserved it."

"And what did she do his time?"

"Well, for starters, she was born."

"You know what I mean," Neville exhaled loudly.

"I know," Scorpius smirked again. "I just like tormenting you. Fine, she hexed me a week ago. I had to miss all my morning classes to sit in the hospital wing."

"It took a week for you to have your revenge?"

"Well...I had to brew the potion. And besides, everybody knows that revenge is better when the victim isn't expecting it."

"Ah." Neville nodded.

"And she totally deserved it."

"You both _always _say that the other one deserved whatever the latest torture is. Do you really think from the bottom of your heart that she deserved it?"

"Yes," Scorpius said without hesitation.

Neville sighed. He had officially lost all hope.

**Year Four:**

Neville finished his chat with Rose following the fistfight he had witnessed between Rose and, who else, Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius was, as Neville had ordered him to, sitting in his office, scowling.

"All right, Scorpius," Neville said, taking a seat behind his desk facing the student who had probably been in that exact spot the most often. "What happened?"

"I was standing with Malcolm," Malcolm Zabini was one of Scorpius' friends. Their parents had forced them together a lot in their youth and even though Scorpius was a Ravenclaw and Malcolm was a Slytherin, they still got along pretty well. "When Weasley and her friend Allie," Allie was Alyssa Lawrence, Rose's best friend, "walked past. I shouldn't have said what I said, but let's just say it wasn't very nice towards Allie. In my defence, I was just trying to get a rise out of Weasley. I didn't really think about how hurtful it would be to Allie. I knew that Weasley would defend her friends no matter what. So then Allie ran off crying and Weasley attacked me."

"Scorpius, Scorpius," Neville shook his head. "You two really need to stop this juvenile hatred. Not only is it hurting yourselves, but it's hurting people around you. Can you not stop for at least a week?"

Scorpius shook his head. "I don't think we can. This is already ingrained into our minds. It's in our natural instinct. I hate her and she hates me. I think it'll work that way for the rest of our lives."

Neville chuckled in spite of himself. He remembered being young and hating Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. He thought he would never get over it, either. He still wasn't friends with them, of course, but he didn't hate them.

"I know what that feels like, I really do. All right, you may go. Oh, but before I forget, you have two detentions this Saturday and the next for inappropriate behaviour towards another student.

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Scorpius muttered.

"And I want you to apologize to Allie for whatever it was you said. No, I don't want to know, but please just apologize."

"I was planning on doing that anyway. I really do feel guilty about Allie, I don't hate her. Just Weasley."

Scorpius got up to leave and Neville buried his face in his arms on his desk. This was never going to end!

**Year Five:**

"And yet again, Scorpius, I find myself not enjoying this beautiful Wednesday evening, but supervising yet another detention." Neville said with a sigh as he looked across his desk at the boy who was sitting, writing the words _I will not use magic inappropriately _over and over.

"It's a blizzard outside, Professor. It's so cold that even Trelawney's tower is cold." Scorpius said, looking up from his paper.

"Yes, but it's the whole idea behind it."

"That you like the snow?"

"No, Scorpius, it's that if you and Rose could just get along, my evenings would be better spent doing something enjoyable."

"Like playing in the snow?"

"You're missing the point!"

Scorpius smirked and Neville knew that he knew what he meant, he just liked the teasing.

"So, do I want to know the story resulting in the hexes that you two were firing at each other?"

"I don't know, do you?"

Neville sighed again. This boy was impossible.

"Just tell me."

"Okay, so I was sitting in the great hall this morning. As you probably saw, my hair was a mess. I went to sleep straight after Quidditch practice, my hair still wet, thus resulting in a mess that won't be tamed. So I was sitting there, trying to forget about my terrible hair day, when Weasley walked up and said, 'What happened to your hair, Malfoy?'" Scorpius imitated Rose in a high pitched voice. "So then I said, 'I should be asking you the same question, Weasley. Has yours ever even _seen _a hairbrush?' then she said, 'Well I know yours hasn't.' So then I got slightly ticked off. I said, 'At least I don't have your disgusting, frizzy, mass of colour that you call your hair.' Then she pulled out her wand and said, 'At least I don't have white hair at the age of fifteen.' That one annoyed me. I mean, all Malfoys have blonde hair. It's in their blood. So by insulting the Malfoy hair, you're insulting the Malfoy name itself. So I responded with, 'Shut it, Weasley.'"

"You got into a duel over hair?" Neville asked disbelievingly.

"I wasn't done yet," Scorpius cried indignantly. "So then she goes, 'Run out of comebacks, Malfoy?' Something I most definitely had _not_ done. So I told her that I could keep going forever and that she was the one too stupid to form a good comeback. That's when she bat-bogey hexed me. So what was I supposed to do, take it lying down? So I fought back. That's when you showed up, Professor."

"You actually duelled over hair?" Neville asked.

"Yes!"

"You two really will use any excuse to argue, won't you?"

"Absolutely."

"Well at least you're honest. Now finish your lines."

Scorpius groaned and turned back to his paper.

**Year Six:**

"I'm amazed, Scorpius. For the first time in your Hogwarts career, you are in detention not for fighting with Rose Weasley or not doing your homework, but for cursing another student who _isn't _Rose."

"He had it coming to him."

"How so?"

"It's Leo McLaggen. He _always_ has it coming."

"How so?" Neville repeated.

"That git was making out with Weasley in a public corridor."

"And you have a problem with this why?"

Scorpius let out a loud huff. "I don't know! I just walked in and saw them going at it in an empty corridor and I felt this sudden burst of anger! So I hexed McLaggen."

"And why were you feeling so angry?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Why are you yelling?" Neville smiled.

"I don't know," Scorpius said more softly.

"I think I do. Could it be that you have feelings for a certain Rose Weasley?"

Scorpius paused for a split second, thinking this over. Then he shook his head firmly. "No," he said. "Absolutely not. There's no way. I hate her and she hates me. It's like I said in my first year. She makes me want to puke."

Neville just smiled knowingly and winked at the sixteen year old.

Scorpius huffed again and pointedly turned back to the lines he was writing.

**Year Seven:**

Neville walked, smiling, to his office where he would talk to Scorpius following the incident he had witnessed in the great hall. He entered the office and Scorpius immediately stood up.

"I'm sorry, Professor. It won't happen again, I swear."

Neville laughed. "I'm not angry, Scorpius. Quite the contrary, I'm over the moon that I won't be dishing you two out any more detentions."

"Oh, in that case, I take back my apology. I'm really not sorry at all." Neville raised one eyebrow threateningly. "Okay, sorry. I apologize, Professor Longbottom, from the bottom of my heart." The sarcasm was impossible to ignore.

"The blatant sarcasm sort of ruined your apology, Scorpius."

Scorpius grinned. "You know that you'll secretly miss my humour when I leave this school."

"No, I really won't."

"Yes you will,"

"I'm not going to argue with you like a three year old."

"I know. So...if you're not angry, why did you call me here?"

"To offer my congratulations on the fact that you and Rose have worked out your problems," Neville smiled.

"Thanks,"

"I take it I won't be dishing out any more detentions?"

"Unless she starts to _really _annoy me again."

"Funny, that's exactly what she said."

Scorpius smiled. "That's funny. Usually we don't agree on anything."

"Actually, you'd be surprised at the amount of similar conversations I had with both of you in the past seven and a half years."

"Like what?"

"Mostly your mutual hate towards each other."

Scorpius laughed. "I guess that makes sense. I'm afraid you'll be having less of those particular conversations now."

"Thank goodness. You'd better go, Scorpius. I believe you have Transfiguration next and Professor McGonagall will have my head if I keep you past the bell."

Scorpius laughed again and said, "All right, Professor. And...thanks."

The blonde left the room and Neville sat at his desk, a blissful look on his face.

_Peace, _he thought. _At last._

_**What did you think? Review!**_


End file.
